9/11 behind sharp increase in on-the-job deaths last year

Published 10:00 pm, Wednesday, September 25, 2002

WASHINGTON -- The number of people killed on the job last year soared by one-third because of the terrorist attacks, the Labor Department reported Wednesday.

A total of 8,786 people died at work last year. Of those, 2,886 were related to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Excluding the victims of attacks, the overall workplace death count was 5,900, which would have been the third-straight annual drop. In 2000, there were 5,920 people killed on the job.

Most of the attack victims were killed while at work - including jobs at the World Trade Center or the Pentagon, on business travel or as a crew member of an airliner or as a rescue worker.

Job descriptions were wide-ranging, though more managers, executives and administrative workers were killed than any other position, at 1,072. Of the rescue workers killed, 335 were firefighters and 61 were police officers or detectives.

Three-quarters of the attack victims were men.

"Today's report demonstrates that workers need more protection, not less," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the federation of 65 labor unions. "The Bush administration and the Congress should be fighting for increased worker protections, not cutting federal funding for safeguards and job safety budgets."

Other findings:

-Of the workers killed at the World Trade Center, two-thirds were between ages 25 and 44. Nine percent were black, 10 percent were Hispanic and 26 percent were women. Of the rescue workers who died there, seven out of 10 were between ages 25 and 44, and nearly all were male.

-Of workers at the Pentagon, over half were between ages 25 and 44. Thirty-three percent were black, 4 percent were Hispanic and 37 percent were women.

Two-thirds of the workers who died in the attacks were over age 34. Almost 20 percent of the workers were foreign-born.

Excluding workers killed in the attacks, the construction industry continued to have the highest number of worker fatalities, increasing to a record high of 1,225.

Transportation-related deaths dropped for the third straight year. Highway incidents, however, increased slightly and continued to be the leading cause of on-the-job fatalities.

Non-highway fatal incidents, which include tractor and forklift overturns, were at their lowest levels since records started being kept in 1992.

Work-related homicides fell to the lowest level since 1992, to 639. Homicides among technical, sales, and administrative support workers decreased, though homicides increased sharply among workers in service occupations, which include police and detectives, food preparation workers, barbers, and hairdressers.

The number of workplace suicides and fatal assaults by animals also increased slightly.

Deaths from falls increased 10 percent between 2000 and 2001 to 808, the highest total since 1992. Fatal falls in the construction industry increased 13 percent and accounted for over half of all fatal falls.